Finally read it! Debating whether to take Poison Town with me for my weekend in Florida, or if I’ll just be sitting with my friends listening to it yell, “Read me! Read me now!” I guess I could bring it for the “takeoff.”

Spoilers, as always.

Fear Has a Name probably terrified me more than any other book I’ve ever read. Because I’ve had a couple stalkers, and I’m the kind of person who attracts people who are mentally ill. Make of it what you will. I say it’s because I’m nice. But that’s kind of what this novel is about. Pamela was nice to someone, and he remembered it because no one else ever was. I was reading this book before bed, and I literally had to put it down and play some really happy music. Creepiest feeling ever.

Still, had some nice quotes. The main characters are all older than what I’m used to (parent people), so the dialogue seemed a little stiff to me. Never grow up! It’s highly overrated.

They agreed to say nothing about the man to Pam’s parents. If her mother knew what was going on, they would most assuredly need to get her a rubber room at the nearest asylum.

(1) “Most assuredly” is a pet phrase of my dad’s and I’ve never heard anyone else say it. (2) This is a tongue-in-cheek description of what happens when you let fear take over your life. It’s funny, but it’s not. Later in the book, Pam’s mother shows up, completely paralyzed by her fear, unable to help her daughter. A good reminder.

How could she mean so much to him? She had simply been nice to him. She’d noticed someone shy and odd and wanted him to feel like he fit in, like he had some friends.

Kind of what I said right off the bat. Because there’s really no knowing what one smile can do for a stranger. My dad used to jog every day, and he waves at all the cars that go by. (People randomly recognize him as the friendly jogger at Publix and stuff.) He said one day a lady in a school bus stopped to tell him that she had planned to commit suicide, but as she was driving her route that morning, she passed him, and he waved at her. She ended up getting saved. Be the one that smiles. It’s so much better to be the one that smiles at strangers than to be the one who doesn’t smile back. You never know whose life you might change.

Jack was 98 percent sure of that. It was the 2 percent uncertainty that nagged him.

That’s the tricky thing about fear. It’s an uphill battle every day. They say you only have a few seconds to reject a thought that comes to your head, or it will take root permanently. That’s what fear is like. Once it’s wired into your brain, it’s hard to get rid of.

The repulsive life of their fictional relationship pounded in Evan’s head and rib cage as he gathered his things.

Not sure why I liked this line so much. Probably because I’m a writer and a fangirl and 99.5% of my relationships are fictional.

So yeah, I did like this book. Petrified me. Genuinely, genuinely petrified me. And I have to get on a plane on Saturday by myself. This may have been really bad timing….